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Alanine conjugate of indole-3-butyric acid improves rooting
of highbush blueberries
S. Mihaljević, B. Salopek-Sondi
Ruđer Bošković Institute, Zagreb, Croatia
ABSTRACT
Auxins and their synthetic analogues are commonly used for rooting of cuttings, but their efficiency depends on experimental set-up and, even more importantly, on species or cultivar, and type of explants investigated. In attempt
to improve rooting procedure for highbush blueberries (Vaccinium corymbosum L.), we investigated alanine conjugate of indole-3-butyric acid (IBA-Ala) as potential root-promoting compound and compared with commonly used
auxins indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) and indole-3-acetic acid (IAA). The effect of different concentrations of auxins
on the rooting of highbush blueberry stem cuttings (var. Bluecrop, Bluetta, Burlington and Jersey) and in vitroderived microcuttings (var. Jersey) was investigated. Auxin treatments significantly promoted rooting of all four varieties in comparison to control. The most efficient rooting promoter in all varieties appeared IBA-Ala (provided up
to 83%, and 93% of the rooted cuttings and microcuttings, respectively). Furthermore, IBA-Ala caused a vigorous,
well-branched root system that resulted in better acclimatization and survival of plants. Results suggest the applica�tion of IBA-Ala may be beneficial for rooting of difficult-to-root varieties of blueberry and related species and their
practical application in the nursery industry.
Keywords: adventitious root; auxin; microcutting; stem cutting; Vaccinium corymbosum L.
Adventitious root formation is the key step in
successful vegetative propagation and deployment
of crop plants. Rooting of cuttings is determined
by a complex interplay between internal and environmental factors (Li et al. 2009). Propagation
success is thus affected by the age and health status
of the stock plant, seasonal timing, propagation
technique, and environmental conditions. Among
internal factors, plant hormone auxin is the dominant regulator of root development (Overvoorde
et al. 2010). Some blueberry varieties are able
to regenerate roots on cuttings spontaneously,
while others require exogenously applied auxin
as rooting promoter (Strik et al. 1993). Although
indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) is the most abundant
natural auxin, indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) was
reported, so far, as the most effective, commonly
used auxin to promote adventitious root formation
in blueberries and related species propagated from
cuttings as well as from tissue culture (Debnath
2005, Litwinczuk et al. 2005, Meiners et al. 2007).
A favourable rooting effect of IBA may be due to
its higher stability in comparison to IAA, its slow
transport from the site of application at the base
of cutting and its conversion to IAA in the cutting (Ludwig-Müller 2000, Štefančič et al. 2007).
Because of the economic importance in horticulture, agriculture and forestry, development and
screening of new rooting compounds potentially
useful for the plant production is constantly subject
of interest (De Klerk et al. 1999). In attempt to
improve rooting procedure for highbush blueberries, we investigated amino acid conjugate of IBA,
(N-[4-(indol-3-yl)butyryl]-l-alanine, IBA-Ala) as
potential root-promoting compound and compare
with commonly used auxins IBA and IAA. Amino
acid auxin conjugates are generally accepted as
storage forms of auxins which participate in auxin
homeostasis during plant development (LudwigMüller 2011). Except a few attempts of testing the
rooting effect of amino acid conjugates (Epstein
and Wiesman 1987), their ability as a root promoter is still unclear. To our best knowledge, this
is the first report on the influence of conjugated
Supported by the Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Sports, Project No. 098-0982913-2829, and by the
Primorsko-Goranska County, Croatia.
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PLANT SOIL ENVIRON., 58, 2012 (5): 236–241
auxins on rooting in genus Vaccinium. In this study
rooting effect of IAA, IBA and IBA-Ala on stem
cuttings of 4 varieties of highbush blueberries was
investigated and compared with that obtained in
microcuttings.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
Chemicals. Plant hormones IAA, IBA, adeninesulfate, and N6-[γ, γ-dimethylallyl] adenosine (2iP)
were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (St. Louis,
USA). Plant Preservative Mixture (PPM TM ), a
broad-spectrum biocide/fungicide was purchased
from Plant Cell Technology, Inc. (Washington
DC, USA). IBA-Ala was prepared as published
previously (Savić et al. 2009).
Plant material: cuttings and microcuttings. For
conventional rooting treatment, soft stem cuttings
of 4 highbush blueberry cultivars Bluecrop, Bluetta,
Burlington and Jersey were taken in August 2006
and 2007 from 3-year-old stock plants grown at
the Center for Agriculture of Mountainous Regions
at Stara Sušica, Croatia.
For initiation of in vitro shoot cultures, soft stem
cuttings of var. Jersey were taken in May 2007 from
4-year-old stock plants growing in the nursery
Hellea d.o.o., Zagreb, Croatia. Nodal segments
bearing one auxiliary bud apiece were surfacesterilized in 70% ethanol (2 min), stirred in 1%
aqueous sodium hypochlorite containing Tween20
(10 min), and washed in sterile distilled water.
Explants were then stirred in 6% H 2O2-water solution (10 min), and finally washed in sterile distilled
water. Primary explants (1 cm long) were cultured
in a hormone-free WPM modified according to
Cao and Hammerschlag (2000), and supplemented
with adenine sulfate (80 mg /L), sucrose (20 g/L),
and PPM TM (0.2%). After four weeks, surviving
explants were subcultured on WPM supplemented
with 15 mg/L 2iP for adventitious bud induction.
Shoot cultures were further multiplied in WPM
with 5 mg/L 2iP in one-month subculturing intervals. Cultures were incubated at 22 ± 2°C under
a 16/8 h photoperiod with cool white fluorescent
lamps at an intensity of 30 ± 2 μmol/m 2/s.
Rooting of cuttings and acclimatization.
Actively growing shoots of blueberries were collected, and cuttings, 10–15 cm long, including
3–6 nodes were made. Basal cut as well as uppermost cut were made immediately below, and just
above respective nodes. The lower leaves were
removed while 1–2 uppermost leaves were remain
attached to the cutting. Cuttings were then treated
PLANT SOIL ENVIRON., 58, 2012 (5): 236–241
with auxins using ‘dip method’ which comprised
short dipping (20 s) of cutting base (3 cm) in auxin
solutions made in 50% ethanol, in the following concentrations: 1.25, 2.5, 5.0, and 10.0 g/L (Hartmann
et al. 2002). Control cuttings were dipped in 50%
ethanol. Treatments were repeated twice, involving at least 15–20 cuttings per treatment. Stem
cuttings were then potted in a mixture of 9:1 (w/v)
perlite and peat, pH 4–5. Cuttings were grown in a
greenhouse under natural light covered with plastic
bags to maintain high humidity. When first leaves
appeared, plastic bags were removed. Cuttings were
screened for roots after two months, and rooted
ones were repotted in a mixture of 3:1:1 (w/v)
humus, peat and perlite. Blueberry plants were
grown in a nursery and monitored for next two
seasons. Surviving plants were scored after a year.
Ex vitro rooting of microcuttings and acclimatization. The effect of auxin treatment on rooting
of Jersey microcuttings was repeated twice, in May
and in October 2009. In vitro shoots were taken
from adventitious shoot cultures subcultured for
two years on WPM with 5 mg/L 2iP (Figure 1).
The ‘dip treatment’ was performed by immersing
of a base of individual microcuttings (shortened
to the length 3–4 cm) into an auxin solution for
20 s. Tested auxins were used in concentration of
4.9 mmol/L and 4.9 μmol/L in 50% ethanol. Control
samples were dipped in 50% ethanol. Each treatment had at least 20 explants. Following treatment,
microcuttings were potted in a mixture of 2:1 (w/v)
peat and vermiculite sterilized by autoclaving, and
sprayed with distilled water under plastic cover to
maintain high humidity. After 4–6 weeks, plastic
bags were removed and the acclimatization was
extended in covered clear plastic containers, until
new leaves appeared. After two months, rooted
Figure 1. In vitro shoot buds proliferation on WPM
supplemented with 5 mg/L 2iP. Scale bar = 1 cm
237
plants were repotted in a mixture of 3:1:1 (w/v)
humus, peat and perlite, and percentage of rooting
was scored. After 6 months, plants were transferred
in a nursery and monitored for next two seasons.
Surviving plants were scored after a year.
Data analysis. Rooting and survival were expressed
as the percentage of explants producing roots and
acclimatized to the nursery. Data were subjected to
analysis of variance (ANOVA). Means were compared
using the Duncan’s Multiple Range Test (DMRT)
at P < 0.05 using Statistica 7.1 computer software
(StatSoft, Inc., Tulsa, USA).
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Rooting of cuttings. Blueberry cuttings, treated
by different concentrations of auxins, as well as
50% ethanol as control were grown in pots under
plastic cover for 30–40 days. During this period
of time some of cuttings were rendered brown
from the base towards the upper part of cutting
and finally declined. Survival of cuttings was 40 to
100%, and was not dependent on auxin treatment. It seems that vigour and health status of
the cutting was the key factor for survival in this
period of experiment. When the first leaves developed (30–40 days upon the treatment), plastic
cover was removed and cuttings were screened for
roots two months upon treatments and repotted.
Percentages of rooted cuttings are presented in
Figure 2 (left panel). As can be seen, spontaneous
rooting ability (controls) depends on the blueberry
varieties. The lowest rooting ability showed var.
Bluecrop (16%) followed by Burlington (19.5%),
while Jersey and Bluetta counted approximately
30% spontaneously rooted plants. This finding
is in agreement with available report (Strik et al.
1993) according to which Bluecrop is classified as
hard to root; Jersey and Burlington are moderate
while Bluetta is considered as easy to root.
Following auxin treatments, rooting of all varieties was improved, especially those exhibiting lower
spontaneous rooting (Bluecrop, Burlington). Amide
conjugated auxin IBA-Ala showed the best rooting
efficacy in all 4 varieties. Average rooting success
with IBA-Ala (calculated for all examined concentrations) was as follow: Burlington 46%, Jersey 58%,
Bluetta 66%, and Bluecrop 70%, although values
for particular concentrations reached up to 83%
rooted plants (Figure 2, left panel). IBA was also
significantly more active in comparison to the
control and concentrations of 5 g/L (24.6 mmol/L)
or/and 10 g/L (49.2 mmol/L) appeared as the most
238
efficient in the examined varieties (up to 75% of
rooted cuttings). Two-way ANOVA confirmed the
significant differences in the percentage of rooting
of cuttings induced by IBA-Ala, IBA, and IAA
treatments (F 12,52 = 8.6090, P = 1.08 × 10 –8 ), as
well as among examined varieties (F 3,52 = 3.6894,
P = 0.1161). There was no interaction between the
auxin treatments and varieties (F 36,52 = 1.4327,
P = 0.1161). According to Celik and Odabas (2009),
the best effective IBA concentration for the rooting
of softwood cuttings of several varieties including
Berkeley and Jersey was lower (about 0.6 g/L or
2.95 mmol/L) compared to our results. The difference in rooting response could be explained by
possible difference in experimental conditions (air
humidity) and physiological condition of cuttings.
Considering auxin conjugates, some preliminary
results on olive cuttings showed improved rooting upon IBA-Ala treatment compared to IBA or
auxin-free treatment (Epstein and Wiesman 1987),
but systematic research on the number of species
is still missing. Auxin activity of IBA-Ala was confirmed in vivo by using root inhibition bioassay on
the seedlings of B. rapa (Savić et al. 2009). Auxin
activity of amino acid conjugate is probably due to
the enzyme-mediated hydrolysis, particularly by
auxin amidohydrolases, which results in releasing
the respective free auxin (Ludwig-Müller 2011).
Amide conjugate IBA-Ala caused, in addition,
strong and well branched adventitious roots in comparison to control, IBA or IAA (Figure 3A). Control
cuttings treated by 50% ethanol mostly produced
small callus on the stem base through which several
weak roots developed (Figure 3B). Rooted cuttings
produced 1–2 strong shoots the first growing season. The second growing season number of shoots
increased up to 7 and resulted with first fruits (data
not shown). Survival of blueberry plants (Figure 2,
right panel), monitored one year after repotting of
rooted cuttings, was generally the lowest in control
plants (60–70%) while the most auxin treatments,
particularly IBA-Ala, improved survival up to 100%.
Ex vitro rooting of microcuttings. Adventitious
shoot cultures maintained on WPM with 5 mg/L
2iP produced about 20 microshoots per subculture (Figure 1). Obtained shoots were elongated
(3–9 cm), light green, and with no sign of hyperhydricity. For rooting, individual microcuttings
were treated with one of auxins. Within 4 weeks
after the auxin treatment, leaves on microcuttings
enlarged and new ones started to emerge. The
most critical factor was providing the humidity
by spraying with distilled water under a plastic cover. Spontaneous rooting of microcuttings
PLANT SOIL ENVIRON., 58, 2012 (5): 236–241
1.25 g/L
5 g/L
■ 10 g/L
60
40
ab
abc
abc
cc
bc
c
100
IAA
IBA
ab
e
IAA
IBA
Rooting (%)
Rooting (%)
ab
40
0
cd
IAA
IBA
b bb
b
ab b ab
b
b
20
0
80
Control
control
Burlington
abc
bc
bc aba a
IAA
IBA
IBA-Ala
ab a
abc
a ab a
a aa a
60
c
40
Control
control
Jersey
100
a
ab
b
ab a abab
IBA-Ala
b
100
IBA-Ala
Jersey
60
a a a ab
Bluetta
IBA
40
0
Control
control
IAA
20
80
Rooting (%)
a
abc
abcd
abc
abc abc
abcd
bcd
bcd
cd
e
100
40
60
IBA-Ala
Burlington
60
abc
ab a a
bc
20
80
20
80
0
Control
control
Control
control
100
abcd abcde
bcde abcd abcde abcd
cde
de
20
100
a
abc
cde
c
abc a a
40
IBA-Ala
Bluetta
60
0
60
abc ab
abc
abc
20
80
40
80
0
Control
control
Bluecrop
100
Survival (%)
0
c
abc
ab
Survival (%)
20
ab
2.5 g/L
a
Survival (%)
Rooting (%)
80
ab
Bluecrop
0 g/L
Survival (%)
100
80
IAA
IBA
IBA-Ala
a aa a
a aa a
aaa
IBA
IBA-Ala
a
60
40
20
Control
control
0
IAA
IBA
IBA-Ala
Control
control
IAA
Figure 2. Rooting of cuttings (%) of Vaccinium corymbosum varieties observed two months upon auxin treatments
(left). Survival (%) of rooted blueberry plants after first year (right). Means ± SE (n = 2) followed by various
letters are significantly different by Duncan’s Multiple Range Test (DMRT) at P < 0.05
(controls treated with 50% ethanol) was about
60%. High percentage of spontaneous rooting of
Jersey microcuttings (60%) in comparison to the
PLANT SOIL ENVIRON., 58, 2012 (5): 236–241
stem cuttings (30%) may be explained by the tissue
culture-induced juvenility. As reported previously,
the in vitro-derived shoots planted directly in soil
239
Figure 3. Cutting- and microcuttingderived blueberry plants var. Jersey:
(A) representative cutting rooted upon
5 g/L (18.3 mmol/L) IBA-Ala treatment in comparison to control (B); (C)
shoot and root growth in 4-month-old
microcutting-derived plant rooted upon
1.34 g/L (4.9 mmol/L) IBA-Ala treatment in comparison to control (D). Scale
bar on panels A, B = 1.5 cm; on panel
C, D = 1 cm
240
year-old in vitro-derived plants counted 3–6 shoots,
while two-year-old plants developed about 17 shoots,
mostly weaker in comparison to cutting-derived
plants (data not shown). Similar observations were
reported earlier for var. Herbert (Litwinczuk et al.
2005). Juvenile branching may be a result of residual
cytokinin within young plants, left over from the in
vitro treatment used to induce shoot proliferation
(Morrison et al. 2000, Debnath 2007).
In general, ex vitro rooting is very useful and efficient rooting procedure because it can decrease
costs of micropropagation and reduce the time for
root establishment. However, the advantages in
vegetative growth and rhizome production of in
vitro-derived plants over stem cuttings may vary
among varieties of blueberry (Morrison et al. 2000,
Debnath 2005), and need to be evaluated individually.
To our knowledge, this is the first report on
amide conjugated auxin as effective rooting agent
in blueberry propagation. IBA-Ala was shown
100
Rooting (%)
rooted significantly better than the cuttings of
mature field grown plants and acclimatized tissue
culture-derived plants (Debnath 2006, Meiners et
al. 2007). Osterc et al. (2009) showed that juvenile
cuttings had better rooting success due to higher
concentrations of endogenous auxins in comparison to older cuttings.
Rooting of microcuttings was enhanced using all
examined concentrations and types of auxins. The
greatest percentage of shoots were rooted after treatment with 4.9 mmol/L (1.34 g/L) IBA-Ala (93.3%),
and only slightly weaker (about 85%) with 4.9 mmol/L
or 4.9 μmol/L (1 g/L or 1 mg/L) IBA (Figure 4).
Treatment with no auxin resulted with lower percentage of rooting (60%) although the difference was
not significant according the ANOVA. In literature,
effective concentration of IBA for blueberry microcuttings varies among different cultivars. Litwińczuk
et al. (2005) referred 14.7 μmol/L (3 g/L) IBA as the
effective concentration for ex vitro rooting of microcuttings var. Herbert. On the contrary, ex vitro
rooting of microcuttings var. Berkeley was equally
efficient with or without 2.5–5 μmol/L (0.5–1 g/L)
IBA (Isutsa et al. 1994, Gonzalez et al. 2000). Recent
results on lingonberry (Debnath 2007) showed that
IBA, although not indispensable for rooting of microcuttings, increased stem length and number of
leaves per stem. This is in agreement with our results
where IBA-Ala, in addition to the development of
a stronger root system, also increased shoot vigour
and leaf size in comparison to control (Figures 3C,D).
More than 90% of the rooted microcuttings were
successfully acclimatized to the climate chamber
conditions, and subsequently transferred to the nursery. After a year, all acclimatized plants survived and
showed normal leaf. However, microcutting-derived
plants showed branching phenotype when compared
with plants regenerated from stem cuttings. One-
80
0 µmol/L
4.9 µmol/L
4.9 mmol/L
60
40
20
0
Control
control
IAA
IBA
IBA-Ala
Figure 4. Ex vitro rooting of microcuttings (%) of Vaccinium corymbosum var. Jersey two months after the
auxin treatments. Data are means ± SE (n = 2). There
are not significant differences between treatments
calculated by Duncan’s Multiple Range Test (DMRT)
at P < 0.05
PLANT SOIL ENVIRON., 58, 2012 (5): 236–241
to be the most effective in the root induction in
microcuttings of V. corymbosum var. Jersey, and
even better in stem-cuttings of four examined
varieties. An optimal concentration, however,
depends on the blueberry cultivar. Our results
suggest promising use of new auxin compound in
rooting of difficult-to-root varieties of blueberry
and related species and their practical application
in the nursery industry.
Gonzalez M.V., Lopez M., Valdes A.E., Ordas R.J. (2000): Micro-
Acknowledgements
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We thank M.Sc. Ivan Salopek for providing blueberry varieties for cutting experiments, and M.Sc.
Ivona Juranić, graduate student from the Faculty of
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Received on January 18, 2012
Corresponding author:
Dr. Branka Salopek-Sondi, Ruđer Bošković Institute, Bijenička cesta 54, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia
e-mail: salopek@irb.hr
PLANT SOIL ENVIRON., 58, 2012 (5): 236–241
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